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Moby Monkey: Fined for Launching Misleading SMS Prize-Offer The service provider Moby Monkey, Leeds-based, has been in the national press recently since being fined by regulator ICSTIS. Moby Monkey was fined due to several complaints that were launched against the company for luring mobile users with a “seriously misleading” SMS software prize-offer. The mobile users were scammed into racking up a huge bill. In the month of June, the newspaper reports started to highlight numerous consumer complaints regarding a “new junk mail plaque.” It was at this time that the complaints revealed that Moby Monkey was being investigated by the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS). This was after hundreds of mobile users complained about Moby Monkey’s SMS software messages offering five-hundred euros in cash rewards. After following up on the investigation the regulator announced that there would be a hard crack down on the company in order to deter others from following in this same path. If other companies decide to offer misleading rewards this could have a damaging effect on the entire mobile industry. Moby Monkey was issued a severe fine of fifty-thousand euros and a penalty of six thousand euros for breaching the ICSTIS code of practice. Moby Monkey, copying other scams used in the past, sent one million mass-mailed SMS software messages that read “Urgent you’ve been chosen to receive a guaranteed 500 mystery award awaiting collection.” This was only the first message sent out by the company. The second message followed just a few days later. The second message said, “Urgent your 500 guaranteed award is still unclaimed.” The fact that both of the messages forgot to mention was that the reward that materialized was in all actuality an overly restricted holiday discount voucher. The reward was not cash at all. The mobile users who rang the number that was advertised with the message were strung along for a period of time. The mobile users were charged premium rates. It is estimated that two hundred mobile users complained to the ICSTIS about the time the timing of the messages. Many of the messages arrived in the middle of the night. Some of the users that had never given their number out to the firm received a total of forty messages a day. The ICSTIS declared that it found the service to be extremely misleading. It was ruled that Moby Monkey took “unfair advantage of consumers (by emphasizing the need to call the number urgently), encouraging unauthorized use “many corporate mobile users also received the text message) and an unreasonable delay during the call which was in fact racking up premium rates on mobile users’ bills. The Director, George Kidd, of ICTIS said, “We will not hesitate to take swift action against the small minority of service providers who think that they can abuse the public confidence and trust in text messaging in order to make money with no regard for consumers whatsoever.” The Messaging Centre offers everything you need to setup a browser-based SMS messaging facility. Take a FREE NO OBLIGATION TRIAL NOW. Also please feel free to look at more useful information about SMS. Enjoying Premium Rated SMS Messages |
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